Transplanting accuracy of a rice transplanter mainly depends on the trajectory of the hoe for picking, conveying and transplanting of seedlings as well as the return motion. The trajectory can be decided and prescribed to be suitable in treating seedlings for a prevailing soil condition. For the purpose of the transplanting accuracy, the design of a transplanting mechanism would be carried out using a planetary-gear-train system instead of the four bar linkage system. In this study, a design method of transplanting mechanism is theoretically proposed by synthesizing a noncircular planetary-gear-train system for the tool (hoe) to trace a prescribed trajectory.
The method utilizes an optimization approach to decide the lengths of an arm and a tool, the inverse kinematics to figure out the configuration angles of the two links, the roll contact condition in transmitting motion between the gears, and a linearization approach to obtain the shapes of the gears. Based on the proposed method, the shapes of the gears and the lengths of the tools of the planetary-gear-train system are determined for three prescribed trajectories. A kinematical simulation with a commercialized package program is also carried out to confirm that the gear-train system synthesized with the proposed method is able to trace the prescribed trajectory.
